Australian Outlook

In this section

Three years on, has enough been done on Syria?

24 Mar 2014
AIIA Fellows responding to the burning question of the week.

Expert Panel-Fellows of the AIIA

HilaryCharlesworthHilary Charlesworth FAIIA-Professor, ANU; Director of Centre for International Governance and Justice ProfessorJocelynCheyAMJocelyn Chey AM FAIIA-Visiting Professor, University of Sydney; former Consul-General in Hong Kong JamesCottonJames Cotton FAIIA-Emeritus Professor at the University of NSW RawdonDalrympleRawdon Dalrymple AO FAIIA-Former Visiting Professor, University of Sydney; Chairman of ASEAN Focus Group Ltd GraemeDobellGraeme Dobell FAIIA-Journalist Fellow, Australian Strategic Policy Institute ErikaFellerErika Feller FAIIA-Former UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection
Janet_HuntJanet Hunt FAIIA-Former Head of the Australian Council for Overseas Aid JamesIngramAOJames Ingram AO FAIIA-Former Diplomat and Head of the UN World Food Program JohnMcCarthyAOJohn McCarthy AO FAIIA-Former Ambassador to Japan, Indonesia, the United States, Thailand, Mexico and Vietnam RobertO’NeillRobert O’Neill FAIIA– Former Chichele Professor of the History of War, Oxford University GarryWoodardGarry Woodard FAIIA-Former Diplomat and Senior Fellow, University of Melbourne RichardWoolcottACRichard Woolcott FAIIA-Former Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

 


Question: Three years on, has the international community done enough on Syria? 

RawdonDalrymple
Rawdon Dalrymple AO FAIIA

Where Syria is concerned, and indeed where a number of other vexed issues are concerned, it makes at best only aspirational sense to speak of an “international community”. Australia cannot avoid having something to say on the Syrian issues because of our temporary membership of the Security Council. But it is very remote from our direct national interests and any views we might express are unlikely to carry significant weight.

ProfessorJocelynCheyAM
Jocelyn Chey AM FAIIA

I think Moir’s cartoon in the Sydney Morning Herald says it all, really.  It shows the husband of a Syrian refugee family explaining to his desperate wife that the international community has united to find the missing Malaysian Airlines plane.  In a contrasting response to the Syrian crisis, the same international community has been unable to agree on common action.  As a result the crisis may well become a perpetual tragedy like the fate of the millions of Palestinian refugees.

[really_simple_share]


Past Questions

March 14, 2014
Should we aspire to ‘a larger Australia’ in international affairs?

March 07, 2014
What are the implications of events in the Ukraine?

February 28, 2014
Do you support the Australia Network?

 

More questions >>